This blog post was written in part by several members of the UK team: May Mak, Rachel Lindley, Charles Harvey & Megan Henderson.
Tanga, Tanzania.
Bond is the international development sector’s network in the UK and is an incredible resource. This year our UK team attended the Bond annual conference virtually to continue listening, learning and evolving. Here are some highlights of what we learned throughout the week.
May - Sustainable Economy
Dr Jason Hickel, Goldsmiths - University of London, highlighted that low-income countries (LIC) contribute the majority of resources, energy and labour that go into the global economy every year (on which high-income countries (HIC) are utterly dependent) and yet receive a mere fraction of the income generated by the global economy. Plainly put, the poorest 60% of humanity receive only 5% of the income from global growth every year. Value is disproportionately produced by the ‘global south’ and yet disproportionately captured, consumed and capitalised by the ‘global north’. Dr Hickel calls for a paradigm shift from ‘charity’ to ‘justice’ - so that LICs are not producing for consumption in the ‘global north’, but growing to meet their own needs first; while HICs need to move towards economic degrowth. His closing words perhaps pack the hardest punch: “Poverty is a consequence of exploitation.”
Rachel - Impact beyond Western Ideals
Evaluation is too often something NGOs do TO communities rather than WITH them. The language we use (“capacity building,” “developing world”) reveals an inherent assumption of superiority; that we have capacity which we need to transfer to the developing world so it too can be developed. We need to unlearn these assumptions (decolonising our minds), and instead learn to recognise and value the inherent skills in the different communities and cultures where we work.
When evaluating projects, we should ask communities “What does success look like for you?” Institutional donors often evaluate against fixed timelines, outputs and outcomes, with tools to measure them and a formula for ‘Value for Money.’ These are not bad in themselves - measuring effectiveness through evidence is important. But we must learn also to value communities’ own goals, perspectives and ways of knowing, as well as organic, unplanned outcomes.
It may be hard for us to ‘let go’ of our Western models. We spent years developing the analytical skills valued so highly in our culture. We should invest time in unlearning too, and getting comfortable with different ways of thinking, knowing and understanding. If the community (not the NGO or donor) owns the project’s objectives and its evaluation framework, the project is much more likely to achieve real and lasting impact.
Charles - Power
Power is at the heart of all equality, diversity and inclusion work. It is important for us to understand power dynamics because people might perpetuate inequality without knowing it. That's why it’s helpful to think about the different forms of power each of us have - some are obvious and others are not.
Less obvious or invisible forms of power can have a big impact on our behaviour. There are internalised beliefs that affect social norms such as sexism and racism, and historic structures embedded in our society that privilege the interests of some people over others, such as patriarchy and settler colonialism. Both shape our sense of what is normal, right or real and impact the decisions we make.
While it is important to look at the power within ourselves - as organisations we also need to consciously think about who we invite to our discussions so we don’t exclude any voices that should be heard.
Being aware of power dynamics and looking critically at how NGOs operate is the first step to being more inclusive and ensuring we maximise the impact of our work.
Megan - Ethical Communications
Five Talents started reviewing our communications last year - we’re currently undertaking a language audit and continuing to evaluate the processes we use when gathering stories from members. But, there is still more for us to learn.
There is no one size fits all approach to informed consent when collecting stories. On top of that - even the language we use as a sector is contested. It’s important as an organisation to continue evolving. What works in the UK may not work for our partners! It is a constant process of reviewing and re-reviewing to ensure that:
Members hold the power in telling their story - it’s their story and should be in their voice;
Our work is displayed accurately, authentically and with context; and
We are not reflecting need as the only aspect of a community where we work.
Finding a balance to illustrate the work of our partners, appeal to funders and involve our members in content collection is difficult. We’re conscious that we are going to get it wrong sometimes! But we are grateful that our supporters are taking this journey with us as we work to make sure our content creation is always ethical and anti-racist.
We hope you’ve enjoyed these short snapshots of our learnings from this year’s Bond Conference. Why not join our next pop-in and ask us how we’re applying them in our work at Five Talents?